IC-NRLF 


MMNARV  , 

<)]••  THI. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFO: 


^eceiveJ 
^Accessions  No. 


,  189 
7,/ss  No. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


ALUMXI  OF  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE, 
.July    ^  1  9    l^OQ, 

ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 


AFTER    THE 


FOUNDING  OF  THAT  INSTITUTION. 


BY  SAMUEL  OILMAN  BEOWN, 

PltKSIDKST  OF  HAMILTON  COLLEGK. 

'. 

BRSIT* 


HANOVER,    N.    H. 
[NTED    AT    THE   DARTMOUTH   PRESS. 

1870. 


A.    TV 

.:•* 

HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE, 

DELIVERED     BEFORE    THE 

ALUMNI  OF  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE, 
July     21  ,     18OO, 

ONE    HUNDRED    YEARS 

AFTER   THE 

FOUNDING  OF  THAT  INSTITUTION. 


BY  SAMUEL  OILMAN  BROWN, 

PRESIDENT    OF    HAMILTON    COLLEGE. 


HANOVER,   N.    H. 
PRINTED   AT  THE  DARTMOUTH  PRESS. 

1870. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  BROTHERS  OF  THE  ALUMNI  : 

A  HUNDRED  years,  within  a  few  months,  have  passed  since 
Dartmouth  College  received  its  charter  from  the  hands  of  JOHN 
WENTWORTII,  the  last  Royal  Governor  of  New  Hampshire.  It 
would  have  been  an  unpardonable  forgetfulness  if  we  had  suffered 
this  century  to  be  completed  without  some  public  recognition  of 
the  good  Providence  which  has  so  long  sustained  the  College, 
and  conferred  upon  it  such  prosperity ;  without  assembling  for 
mutual  congratulations,  for  a  review  of  the  past,  and  promises 
for  the  future.  Historically  considered,  no  century  of  modern 
times  has  been  more  fruitful  in  great  men  and  great  events  than 
that  which  closes  with  the  present  year.  None  has  been  so  fruit- 
ful in  discoveries  and  inventions  for  bringing  the  earth  under  the 
dominion  of  man,  or  in  the  developing  of  those  principles  of  civil 
liberty  and  self-government  which  have  taken  such  profound  hold 
of  the  popular  mind,  and  given  to  free  nations  a  variety  and 
extent  of  power  altogether  unknown  before. 

The  third  quarter  of  the  last  century  was  a  memorable  era 
to  England  and  her  colonies.  Then  was  generated  an  intellectual 
and  spiritual  movement  which  has  widened  and  deepened  down 


4  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

to  the  present  time.  The  political  power  of  England,  from  a 
state  of  anxiety,  distrust,  and  depression,  rose  buoyant,  confident, 
and  invincible,  mainly  through  the  courage,  patriotism  and  civil 
genius  of  one  great  statesman.  In  both  hemispheres  and  in  every 
zone  the  arms  and  spirit  of  England  became  ascendant.  The 
colonies  in  America  caught  the  impulse,  asserted  more  strongly 
their  manhood,  enlarged  their  aspirations,  and  felt  that  a  wider 
scope  was  opened  to  them  too,  as  the  French  cordon  stretching 
round  from  the  Canadas  to  the  gulf  was  broken.  A  manlier  and 
more  independent  spirit  developed  itself  in  a  race  essentially 
manly,  noble  and  aspiring. 

There  was  another  influence  also,  still  more  potent  perhaps, 
in  its  effect  upon  the  common  mind,  which  was  widely  felt  in 
both  England  and  this  country,  throughout  the  middle  of  the 
last  century.  I  refer  to  that  remarkable  religious  awakening 
which  spread  over  the  land  with  such  powerful  results ;  not 
always  indeed  well  ordered,  yet  in  the  main  renovating  and 
exalting,  filling  the  mind  with  unselfish  purposes,  and  inspiring 
the  most  beneficent  plans.  There  was  hardly  a  minister  or  parish 
in  New  England  which  did  not  feel  the  unusual  excitement.  It 
stimulated  the  thought  as  well  as  startled  the  conscience.  It 
encouraged,  in  the  general  New  England  mind,  a  delight  in 
subtle  theological  discussions,  and  threw  a  charm  about  the 
profoundest  metaphysical  theories.  The  grand  and  vast  problems 
of  human  accountability  and  human  destiny  it  made  the  topics  of 
frequent  and  familiar  discussion,  and  thus  rendered  the  mind  at 
once  more  grave,  more  penetrating,  and  more  independent.  It 
did  far  more  than  this.  It  inspired  an  humble,  zealous,  earnest 
spirit  for  the  wide  diffusion  of  Christian  truth.  It  directed  the 
energies  of  the  benevolent  to  the  moral  wants  of  the  land,  to 
enlighten  the  benighted,  to  raise  the  downcast. 

Among  the  actors  in  these  moving  scenes,  inspired  by  them 
and  inspiring  them,  wasELEAZAK  WHEELOCK,  the  minister  of  the 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  5 

secluded  little  town  of  Lebanon,  in  Connecticut.  He  was  an 
eloquent  and  powerful  preacher,  familiar  with  the  leaders  of 
religious  thought  in  New  England,  of  a  truly  devout  spirit,  and 
with  plans  for  doing  good  which  could  not  be  limited  by  the 
boundaries  of  his  parish.  Among  the  schemes  of  benevolence 
which  found  a  home  in  his  inquiring  and  active  mind,,  was  one 
for  christianizing  and  educating  those  wandering,  untamable 
races,  whose  cunning,  ferocity,  and  cold  blooded  cruelty  had  made 
them  such  formidable  enemies  to  the  colonists,  and  invested  the 
early  wars  with  uriimagined  horrors.  Here  were  heathen  and 
pagans,  worshipers  of  demons,  implacable  and  vindictive,  impa- 
tient of  the  restraint  of  civilization  but  quick  to  catch  its  vices, 
at  the, very  door  of  Christian  men,  and  should  not  an  effort  be 
made  to  -save  them,  to  give  them  Christian  knowledge,  to  change 
their  nature  and  impart,  if  possible,  the  virtues  and  security  of  a 
Christian  commonwealth  ? 

The  problem  of  Indian  civilization  presented  to  him  the 
same  difficulties  that  it  does  to  us,  nor  has  our  experience  taught 
us  any  better  way  to  solve  it.  He  felt  that  to  accomplish  any- 
thing for  the  permanent  good  of  a  race  so  restless,  wandering 
and  unstable,  he  must  subdue  their  native  aversion  to  labor,  must 
change  thejr  ideas  as  well  as  their  practices,  and  by  bringing 
them  into  early  and  familiar  contact  with  civilized  life,  relieve 
them  of  fear  and  distrust,  disarm  their  hostility,  and  habituate 
them  to  the  quiet,  diligent  and  persistent  methods  of  Christian 
societies.  Apparently  more  fortunate  than  Goldsmith's  village 
preacher, 

—"passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year," 

Mr.  WHBELOCK  had  been  settled  at  a  nominal  compensation  of 
one  hundred  and  forty.  But  as  this  was  paid  not  in  pounds 
sterling,  nor  even  in  lawful  money,  but  in  provisions  reckoned  at 


6  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

high  prices,  and  diminished  in  amount  as  prices  became  more 
reasonable,  for  many  years  he  received  less  than  the  good  minis- 
ter of  the  "Deserted  Village."  In  order  to  meet  his  necessary 
expenses,  therefore,  he  established  a  kind  of  school  for  boys. 
Into  this  school,  in  December  1743,  he  received  a  young  Mohegan 
Indian  called  SAMSOX  OCCUM.  This  boy  remained  with  him  for 
several  years,  and  became  finally  a  preacher  of  no  small  influence. 
Indeed,  standing  as  an  example  of  what  might  be  hoped  for 
under  favorable  auspices,  no  more  powerful  argument  for  Indian 
civilization  could  be  addressed  to  the  benevolent  mind  than  that 
afforded  by  his  presence.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  had  this  first 
experiment  turned  out  unfavorably,  the  benevolent  effort  of  Mr. 
WHEELOCK  might  have  assumed  a  different  form.* 

Encouraged  however,  by  what  he  saw,  and  stimulated  by  a 
true  missionary  spirit,  he  set  about  in  earnest  carrying  his  scheme 
into  execution.  In  doing  this  he  manifested  a  large  degree  of 
intelligence,  energy  and  wisdom.  It  was  an  untried  enterprise, 
and  required  to  be  commended  to  the  good  judgment,  as  well  as 
urgently  and  persistently  pressed  upon  the  conscience  of  the 
community.  He  appealed  to  the  civil  prudence  of  the  people  as  well 
as  to  their  sense  of  Christian  rectitude.  "It  has  seemed  to  me"  he 
said,  "he  must  be  stupidly  indifferent  to  the  Redeemer's  cause 
and  interest  in  the  world,  and  criminally  deaf  and  blind  to  the 
intimations  of  the  favor  and  displeasure  of  God  in  the  dispensa- 
tions of  his  providence,  who  could  not  perceive  plain  intimations 
of  God's  displeasure  against  us  for  this  neglect  [of  our  heathen 
natives,]  inscribed  in  capitals  on  the  very  front  of  divine  dispen- 
sations from  year  to  year,  in  permitting  the  savages  to  be  such  a 
sore  scourge  to  our  land."  "And  there  is  good  reason  to  think," 

*The  hymn  "Awaked  by  Sinai's  awful  sound,"  is  usually  ascribed  to 
OCCUM.  If  this  be  so,  it  shows  that  he  possessed  not  only  deep  religious 
feeling,  but  a  certain  loftiness  of  poetic  conception  not  common  in  his 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  7 

he  goes  on,  "that  if  one  half  which  has  been  for  so  many  years 
past  expended  in  building  forts,  manning  and  supporting  them, 
had  been  prudently  laid  out  in  supporting  faithful  missionaries 
and  schoolmasters  among  them,  the  instructed  and  civilized  party 
would  have  been  a  far  better  defence  than  all  our  expensive  for- 
tresses, and  prevented  the  laying  waste  so  many  towns  and 
villages." 

For  the  success  of  his  plan,  two  things  were  necessary :  first, 
to  induce  Indian  boys  to  attend  the  school,  and  secondly,  to 
obtain  the  means  for  their  support.  To  accomplish  the  former, 
he  used  all  the  methods  that  he  could  command.  He  sent  agents 
in  different  directions.  He  corresponded  with  Sir  WILLIAM  JOHN- 
SON and  with  other  persons  of  influence  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Indians.  At  length,  in  1754,  two  boys  of  the  Delaware  tribe  / 
were  sent  to  him  by  the  Rev.  JOHN  BRAINERD,  and  the  experi- 
ment began.  This  number  gradually  increased,  notwithstanding 
the  interruptions  of  war,  till  in  1761  the  school  numbered  eleven 
pupils.*  To  carry  on  the  benevolent  scheme,  Mr.  WHEELOCK 
solicited  funds  from  the  generous  and  benevolent  at  home  and 
abroad.  The  first  decisive  and  important  gift  came  from  a  com- 
paratively humble  source.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  indenture, 
dated  July  17,  1755,  in  which  a  plain  farmer  of  Mansfield,  Ct, 
Mr.  JOSHUA  MORE,|  gave  to  Col.  ELISHA  WILLIAMS,  Rev. 
SAMUEL  MOSELY,  Rev.  ELEAZAR  WHEELOCK,  and  Rev.  BENJA- 
MIN POMEROY,  a  small  house  and  about  two  acres  of  land  situated 
in  Lebanon  in  that  State,  in  trust  for  the  founding,  use  and  sup- 

*Among  the  early  pupils  of  Mr.  WHEELOCK  was  the  celebrated 
Mohawk  Chief,  JOSEPH  BKANDT,  Thayendanegea,  who  seems  to  have 
always  retained  a  grateful  recollection  of  his  instructor.  In  a  list  of 
the  members  of  the  School  from  September,  1765  to  May,  1767,  we  find 
the  names  of  fifteen  Mohawks,  four  Oneidas,  four  Mohegans,  two  Mon- 
tauks,  four  Delawares,  and  eight  Narragansets. 

tThe  name  is  spelt  in  the  Indenture  More,  and  not  as  we  find  it 
later,  Moor. 


S  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

port  of  a  Charity  School.  This  is  Mr.  MOKE'S  passport  to  an 
honorable  and  grateful  fame.  It  was  not  a  very  large  donation, 
but  it  was  both  generous  and  seasonable,  and  it  is  fitting  that  his 
name  should  be  retained  affixed  to  the  School,  to  be  remembered 
as  long  as  it,  or  the  College  which  sprang  from  it,  shall  continue 
to  exist.  Here  was  afforded  the  nucleus  around  which  other 
donations  might  crystalize.  Nor  did  an  enterprise  so  unique,  so 
promising,  so  benevolent,  fail  of  friends.  A  fund  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds,  lawful  money,  was  soon  subscribed.  Mr.  WHEE- 
LOCK,  with  great  wisdom,  courtesy,  and  earnestness,  appealed  for 
aid  to  the  royal  Governors  and  legislatures  of  nearly  all  the 
Northern  colonies,  and  he  did  not  appeal  in  vain.  Looking 
higher  than  this  even,  he  commissioned  SAMSOX  OCCUM  and  Rev. 
NATHANIEL  WIIITTAKER,  of  Norwich,  Ct.,  to  solicit  funds  in 
England.  OCCUM  was  a  curiosity,  and  as  the  first  Indian 
preacher  who  had  appeared  in  Great  Britain,  attracted  great 
attention.  He  preached  hundreds  of  times  with  general  accept- 
ance and  SUCC3SS.  The  King  gave  two  hundred  pounds,  Lord 
DARTMOUTH  fifty  guineas,  and  altogether  the  subscription  in 
England  and  Scotland  amounted  to  the  generous  sum  of  nearly 
ten  thousand  pounds.  This  was  deposited  in  part  with  a  Board 
of  Trustees  in  London,  of  which  Lord  DARTMOUTH  was  the 
President,  and  the  remainder  with  the  Society  in  Scotland  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge. 

For  fourteen  years  after  Mr.  MORE'S  donation,  the  School' 
went  on  doing  its  wearisome  yet  beneficent  work  with  as  much 
success  as  could  be  expected  considering  the  material  to  be 
wrought  upon.  Indian  boys  and  girls  were  faithfully  taught  to 
labor  as  well  as  to  study.  They  mingled  freely  with  children  of 
English  origin,  and  were  encouraged  to  adopt  the  customs  and 
learn  the  arts  of  civilized  life.  Their  habits  of  listlessness  and 
indifference  were  in  part  overcome.  They  were  taught  to  look 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  9 

upon  agriculture  as  honorable,  and  to  depend  for  sustenance  upon 
the  sure  returns  of  the  grateful  earth,  instead  of  the  uncertain 
results  of  hunting  and  fishing.  They  were  instructed  above  all, 
in  the -Christian  faith,  and  their  moral  culture  was  watched  over 
with  zealous  care. .  And  yet  nearly  or  quite  half  of  those  who 
came  under  the  care  of  Mr.  WHEELOCK  disappointed  his  hopes, 
and  returned  again  to  the  vices  of  savage  life. 

The  experience  of  Mr.  WHEELOCK  thus  taught  him  that,  for 
permanent  influence  among  the  Indian  tribes  he  must  rely  upon 
men  more  stable,  more  thoroughly  rooted  and  grounded  by 
inherent  disposition  in  things  which  are  good  and  make  for  peace, 
than  it  was  reasonable  to  expect  from  the  children  of  the  forest, 
drawn  for  a  few  brief  years  into  contact  with  civilization  and 
then  sent  back  to  resist  alone  the  mighty  influence  of  blood  and 
race,  and  character,  and  national  habits.  He  began  therefore  to 
think  of  the  enlargement  of  his  plan,  and  as  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  this,  the  removal  of  the  school  to  a  place  where  he 
might  have  freer  scope,  better  facilities  of  access  to  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  enlarged  resources  for  carrying  on  his  work. 

During  these  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  by  the  energy  of  Mr. 
WHEELOCK,  by  his  correspondence  with  men  of  distinction,  his 
memorials  to  the  State  assemblies,  and  the  agents  which  he  sent 
abroad,  the  School  had  become  famous.  When,  therefore,  his 
purpose  to  remove  it  became  known,  he  received  solicitations 
and  proposals  from  various  parts  of  the  country.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  Stockbridge  in  the  -western  part  of  Massachusetts,  where 
an  Indian  School  had  already  once  been  established  under  the 
direction  of  the  Missionary,  JOHX  SERGEAXT,  made  a  generous 
offer  for  the  School,  and  accompanied  the  offer  with  a  sound 
statement  of  the  principle  which  should  determine  the  location. 
Pittsfield  presented  its  claim.  Albany  offered  a  square  in  the 
city  overlooking  the  Hudson,  and  there  is  now  in  the  State 

2 


1 0  HISTORICAL  DISCO  URSE. 

Library  in  that  city,  a  map  drawn  with  a  pen,  giving  the  bounda- 
ries and  position  of  the  proposed  location.  This  proposal  was 
seconded  by  PHILIP  SCHUYLEE, — General  SCHUYLER  that  was  to 
be, — who  promised  to  use  his  influence  to  secure  desirable  advan- 
tages. Lansinburgh,  then  just  laid  out,  offered  land  within  and 
without  the  town.  A  reservation  on  the  Susquehanna,  "delight- 
ful Wyoming,"  innocent  then  of  wars  and  massacres,  stretched 
its  fair  valley,  soliciting  and  wooing.  The  far-off  Ohio  endeav- 
ored to  draw  the  School  to  that  thinly  inhabited  region.  It  was 
urged  by  some  that  it  should  migrate  beyond  the  Mississippi; 
while  Sir  WILLIAM  Jonxsox  cast  his  vote  for  Xorth  or  South 
Carolina. 

Another  anxiety,  besides  that  of  location,  perplexed  the 
mind  of  Mr.  WHEELOCK.  A  school,  to  be  permanent,  must  have 
funds.  To  produce  security  and  confidence,  the  funds  must  be 
entrusted  to  a  board  authorized  to  receive  and  manage  them. 
But  as  yet  there  was  no  legal  corporation.  A  board  had  been 
formed,  but  the  character  of  it  as  interpreted  by  the  law,  to  say 
the  least,  was  unascertained.* 

*Mr.  WHEELOCK  had  made  several  strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  a 
charter  for  the  School,  but  had  been  met  by  insuperable  obstacles.  An 
extract  from  a  letter,  (dated  October  16, 1700,)  to  WILLIAM  LIVINGSTON, 
Esq.,  an  eminent  member  of  the  bar  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey, who 
afterwards  became  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  a  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention which  framed  the  Federal  Constitution,  will  indicate  the  kind 
of  perplexities  which  he  was  obliged  to  meet.  After  stating  that  the 
instrument  by  which  himself  and  others  had  been  appointed  trustees 
of  the  property  given  by  Mr.  MOKE,  had  been  judged  by  Governor 
AVoLCOTT  and  others  learned  in  the  law,  not  to  be  a  legal  and  sufficient 
incorporation,  lie  goes  on :  ''Whereupon  we  made  application  for  the 
Royal  favour  of  a  Charter.  A  memorial  on  the  head  by  Dr.  B.  A  VERY, 
Esq.,  and  Mr.  DE  BERDT  of  London,  was  preferred  to  Lord  HALIFAX, 
who  approved  the  design,  but  to  avoid  expense  advised  us  to  get  a  law 
i.i  this  Government  establishing  such  a  school,  and  promised  it  should 
be  ratified  there  in  council.  Accordingly  I  waited  on  our  Assembly  in 
May,  1758,  with  a  memorial.  A  committee  from  both  Houses  reported 
in  favour  of  it.  The  House  of  Representatives  concurred.  The  upper 


HISTORICAL  DISCO  URSE.  1 1 

Among  those  with  whom  correspondence  was  held,  was  the 
Royal  Governor  of  New  Hampshire,  the  second  Governor  who 
bore  the  name  of  JOHN  WENTTVORTH.  He  had  succeeded  his 
uncle  BENXIXG  WEXTWORTII,  under  somewhat  peculiar,  and  cer- 
tainly favorable,  circumstances.  He  had  obtained  office  through 
favor  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  then  at  the  head  of  the 
liberal  ministry  through  whom  the  odious  stamp  act  had  been 
repealed,  a  result  which  Mr.  WENTWORTH  had  done  something 
to  secure.  The  Governor  was  a  gentleman  of  conciliatory  tem- 
per, of  popular  manners,  of  liberal  taste,  and  possessed  withal  of 
a  resolute  spirit  of  improvement.  He  explored  the  forests,  built 
roads,  paid  a  careful  attention  to  agriculture,  and  both  by  precept 
and  example  did  much  to  develope  the  resources  of  the  Province. 
His  correspondence  marks  him  as  an  enlightened,  courteous,  and 
liberal  ruler,  ready  and  willing  to  cooperate  with  others  so  as  to 
produce  the  best  actual  results. 

Anxious  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  Province,  and  wise 
enough  to  see  that  civilization  cannot  be  greatly  advanced  with- 
out intelligence,  he  brought  to  bear  upon  the  removal  of  the 
School  to  ]STew  Hampshire  all  the  influences  at  his  command. 
He  oifered  lands  for  an  endowment,  and  promised  his  personal 
aid  and  sympathy.  The  establishment  of  a  college  had  been  at- 
tempted under  the  administration  of  his  predecessor,  but  Gover- 
nor BEXXIXG  WEXTWORTH,  closely  attached  to  the  Church  of 

House  negatived,  and  that  for  these  reasons,  as  Colonel  TBUMBULL, 
(who  was  one  of  the  committee  appointed  to  debate  on  the  different 
votes  of  the  Houses)  assures  me,  viz:  'That  the  sending  an  act  home 
for  ratification  would  be  such  a  precedent  as  may  be  of  hurtful  conse- 
quence to  this  Charter  Government :  That  an  act  here  though  ratified 
at  home  will  not  answer  our  design,  because  it  will  not  enable  us  to  act 
without  the  bounds  of  this  Government  in  which  are  comparatively  but 
few  Indians :  That  a  corporation  within  a  corporation  may  be  trouble- 
some, as  our  College  (tho'  our  glory)  has  sometimes  been.'  But  no 
objection  was  made  against  it  as  being  in  itself  a  device  unsuitable  to 
the  end  proposed." 


12  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

England,  had    refused  a  charter,  unless  the  College  were  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  Bishop  of  London.     But  JOHN  WEXT- 
WORTII,  more  sagacious  and  more  liberal,  solicitous  for  learning, 
solicitous  that  the  State,  overshadowed  somewhat,  as  it  was,  by 
the  larger  and  more  populous  provinces  to  the  south  of  it,  should 
rise  in  dignity  and  influence,  not  only  offered  no  obstacle  but  the 
heartiest  cooperation  and  assistance.     To  him  more  than  to  any 
other  man  was  it  probably  owing  that  the  college  was  established  at 
that  time  with  so  liberal  and  sound  a  charter,  indeed  that  the  Col- 
lege was  established  at  all.     To  him  was  it  largely  owing  that  the 
school  did  not  wander  beyond  the  Hudson,  the  Ohio,  the  Missis- 
sippi, but  soberly  and  quietly  seated  itself  on  the  banks  of  the 
beautiful  Connecticut.     To  him — to  his  popularity  and  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  British  Ministry, — was  it  due  perhaps  that, 
in  that  period  of  growing  irritation  between  the  Colonies  and  the 
Mother  Country,  any  grant  of  privileges,  least  of  all  one  so  ample 
and  so  unrestricted  by  vexatious  limitations,  was  obtained.     Still 
more  than  this  must  in  justice  be  said.     The  ideas  of  Governor 
WEXTWORTH  were  apparently  broader   than  those  of  the   Con- 
necticut Minister.     Dr.  WHEELOCK  proposed  to  remove  his  school 
to  New  Hampshire  on  condition  that  it  should  be  incorporated, 
and  certain  lands  given  for  its  support.     An  original  copy  of  the 
charter,  proposed  for  the  consideration  of  Governor  WEXTWORTH 
incorporated  the  institution  by  the  name  of  "Dartmouth  Acade- 
my"    It  seems  to  have  been  Dr.  WIIEELOCK'S  purpose  to  obtain 
an  incorporation  of  the  Indian  Charity  School,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  which  the  trustees  of  the  fund  in  London  should  retain  a 
share.     He    founded    and    "builded    better    than    he    knew." 
He  asked  the    charter  of    an    academy,   he    obtained  a    college. 
He  aimed  first  to  instruct  the  aborigines,  yet  comparatively  few 
and   infrequent  have  been   the  pupils  of  Dartmouth    from   the 
fleeting  and  fading  tribes,  but  who  can  estimate  the  influence  on 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  13 

that  stronger,  firmer,  more  persistent,  more  noble  race  who  have 
here  drawn  in  their  intellectual  life  ?  But  that  the  institution 
assumed  here  its  larger  dimensions,  that  its  purpose  became  com- 
prehensive of  the  grandest  circle  of  sciences  and  arts,  that  it  was 
without  dispute  raised  at  once  in  generic  character,  to  the  high- 
est level  of  literary  institutions  in  our  country,  with  £  constitu- 
tion flexible  and  plastic,  capable  of  natural  and  easy  enlargement 
to  meet  any  want,  hospitable  to  schools  of  kindred  purpose  that 
might  cluster  about  the  central  organization,  and  inviting  them 
by  its  liberal  policy — this  original  capability  is  to  a  considerable 
extent  due  to  the  large  nature  and  magnanimous  spirit  of  the 
last  of  the  Royal  Governors  of  New  Hampshire. 

For  some  reasons  which  it  is  not  quite  easy  to  understand, 
— perhaps  from  some  subtle  and  hardly  acknowledged  jealousies, 
perhaps  from  some  undefined  suspicions,  perhaps  from  fear  that 
the  benevolent  purposes  of  the  school  would  be  overshadowed  by 
the  more  ambitious  and  secular  purposes  of  the  College,  perhaps 
from  observing  that  the  charter  named  the  whole  board  of  Trust 
from  the  Colonies  and  no  one  from  England — for  these  or  other 
reasons  the  project  was  regarded  abroad,  even  by  good  men 
whose  liberality  and  friendliness  had  been  unquestioned,  with  no 
favor  but  rather  with  aversion.  "It  was  certainly"  writes  one  of 
them  to  Dr.  WHEELOCK  in  July,  1770,  "a  very  wrong  step  for 
you  to  take  without  consulting  us.  It  is  the  sentiment  of  us  all, 
that  by  lodging  the  power  in  other  hands,  it  has  superseded  the 
trust  here,  and  we  shall  desire  to  have  done  with  it."  And  in 
April,  1771,  the  London  trustees  again  write,  "We  cannot  but 
look  upon  the  charter  you  have  obtained,  and  your  intention  of 
building  a  college  anil  educating  English  youths,  as  going  beyond 
the  line  by  which  both  you  and  we  are  circumscribed." 

Xevertheless  the  charter  had  been  given,  bearing  date 
December  13,  1769,  not  superseding  the  original  School,  nor 


14  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

enlarging  and  giving  it  a  new  form,  for  that  still  continued  and 
remains  to  this  day,  but  establishing  a  NEW  INSTITUTION,  with 
different  purposes  and  more  noble  and  efficient  powers. 

To  this  institution,  that  liberal  nobleman,  Lord  DARTMOUTH, 
had  made  no  contributions,  yet  remembering  his  help  for  the 
Charity  School  when  such  endorsement  was  of  worth  far  beyond 
its  pecuniary  value,  it  was  a  natural  as  well  as  a  graceful  tribute 
to  give  the  College  his  name.  It  strikes  us  too,  as  an  exhibition 
of  true  magnanimity,  that  Governor  WENTWORTII,  who  might 
lay  claim  to  be  the  chief  benefactor  and  patron  of  the  college, 
seems  never  to  have  thought  of  his  own  agency,  nor  to  have 
sought  any  advantage  or  honor  beyond  what  would  naturally 
accrue  to  the  Province  over  which  he  presided. 

Although  the  charter  fixed  the  College  in  the  Province  of 
New  Hampshire,  its  exact  location  was  still  a  matter  of  question, 
and  the  advantages  offered  by  many  towns  on  the  Connecticut, 
from  Lebanon  up  to  Landaff  were  carefully  considered.  Governor 
WENTWORTH  recommended  the  latter,  while  others  were  in  favor 
of  towns  still  farther  south  than  either  of  those  named.  The 
precise  position  seems  to  have  been  determined  by  its  general 
advantages,  and  by  grants  of  land  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  and 
other  promises  of  aid.  We  may  remember,  too,  that  Vermont 
did  not  then  exist  as  a  State,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  Xew  Hamp- 
shire was  thought  to  extend  rather  indefinitely  westward.  Han- 
over was  then  a  somewhat  central  position  in  the  territory,  within 
a  region  sparsely  peoj  le  1  indeed,  yet  not  inaccessible  from  the 
seaboard,  an;l — what  was  thought  to  be  of  considerable  impor- 
tance— within  easy  distance  of  Crown  Point  on  Lake  Champlain, 
and  of  the  Canadas ;  quite  at  the  door,  as  one  might  say,  of  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  North  and  Xorthwest,  and  yet  within  call  of 
the  "English  youth"  for  whose  welfare  the  charter  was  good 
enough  to  make  some  provision. 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  15 

Thus  was  the  College  started  on  its  career,  in  a  year  memo- 
rable for  the  birth  of  great  men  and  the  occurrence  of  important 
events  ;  the  year  in  which  NAPOLEON  and  WELLINGTON,  CUVIER 
and  HUMBOLDT,  NET  and  BEMADOTTE,  SOULT  and  CHATEAU- 
BRIAND, Sir  THOMAS  LAWRENCE  and  DsWiTT  CLINTON  first  saw 
the  light ;  the  year  in  which  ARKWRIGHT  received  his  first  patent 
for  the  spinning  jenney  which  wrought  a  revolution  in  manufac- 
turing,— in  which  the  Letters  of  JUNIUS  first  stimulated  that  liter- 
ary and  political  curiosity  which  they  have  baffled  for  a  whole 
century, — and  DANIEL  BOONE — the  type  of  the  earlier  emigrant, 
crowded  and  in  want  of  breath,  if  within  fifty  miles  of  a  white 
settlement, — was  first  exploring  the  picturesque  valleys  and  fertile 
plains  of  Kentucky. 

Was  it  not  a  notable  mark  of  the  enterprising  intelligence 
and  Christian  energy  which  governed  our  fathers,  that  in  this 
thinly  peopled  region,  so  nearly  on  the  borders  of  civilization,  the 
primeval  pines  towering  nearly  three  hundred  feet*  above  the 
plain  were  cut  away  to  give  room  for  a  college,  where  science 
and  letters  and  arts  and  religion  might  find  a  shelter  and  a  home  ; 
where  the  seed  might  be  planted  to'  spring  up  in  laws  and  liber- 
ties, in  eloquence  and  arts,  in  philanthropy  and  missions,  in  virtu- 
ous and  refined  communities,  in  an  ennobled  State.  The  whole 
county  contained  less  than  three  thousand  inhabitants,  but  our 
fathers  divined  the  widsom  of  providing  for  future  necessities. 
Their  provision  was  prevision.  It  was  prophetic  of  the  coming 
generation.  And  has  not  this  been  instinctively  our  national  pol- 
icy, the  open  secret  of  our  success?  We  do  not  wait,  in  build- 
ing our  Pacific  railroads,  till  towns  and  cities  have  sprung  up 
along  the  track.  We  anticipate  and  direct  the  course  of  emigra- 


*Mr.  McCLUBE  in  his  life  of  President  WHEELOCK  speaks  of  a  pine 
cut  upon  the  plain  which  measured  two  hundred  and  seventy  feet. 


16  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

tion.  We  entice  it  along  the  paths  which  commerce  sees  to  be 
wise. 

It  was  not  till  the  summer  of  1770  that  operations  under  the 
charter  were  fairly  commenced  in  Hanover.  On  the  5th  of  July 
of  that  year,  ELEAZAR  WHEELOCK,  JOHN  WENTWORTII,  THEO- 
DORE ATKINSON,  GEORGE  JAFFREY,  DANIEL  PIERCE,  PETER 
OILMAN*  and  BENJAMIN  POMEROY,  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  took 
the  oaths  and  subscribed  the  declaration  required  to  be  taken  and 
subscribed  by  the  Trustees.  The  members  who  resided  in  Con- 
necticut subscribed  the  same  at  Hartford  on  the  17th  of  the 
same  month*  In  August,  with  a  company  of  nearly  thirty  stu- 
dents, Dr.  WIIEELOCK  took  possession  of  the  place,  much  in  the 
spirit  of  a  pioneer,  of  a  missionary,  much  as  a  soldier  would 
plant  a  fort  far  within  the  unbroken  regions  of  barbarism. 

For  a  temporary  shelter,  he  built  a  log  hut  about  eighteen 
feet  square,  without  stone,  brick,  glass,  or  nails.  Then  with 
thirty  or  forty  laborers,  he  set  about  building  a  house  for  himself, 
forty  feet  by  thirty-two,  of  one  story,  and  another,  eighty  feet 
by  thirty-two,  for  the  students.  Before  finishing  the  first 
structure,  he  found  it  necessary  to  take  it  to  pieces  and  remove  it 
about  seventy  rods,  because,  having  dug  one  well  forty  feet  and 
and  another  sixty-three  fevt  deep  without  sign  of  water,  it  was 
evident  that  he  had  fallen  upon  a  dry  place.*  The  household 

*Tke  place  first  chosen  for  the  log  hut  is  said  to  have  been  on  land 
now  owned  by  the  Chandler  Scientific  School,  and  west  of  the  house 
now  occupied  by  Miss  McMuRPHY.  From  this  it  was  removed  when 
half  finished  to  a  spot  a  little  north  of  Reed  Hall.  It  was  occupied  at 
first  by  the  family  of  the  President,  and  afterwards  by  his  servants,  and 
was  finally  demolished  in  1780.  The  larger  framed  house  was  built  on 
the  common  westward  from  the  well,  and  fronted  the  south.  It  was 
afterwards  enlarged,  and  one  portion  of  it  made  to  serve  for  a  chapel 
while  another  part  was  used  for  a  common  hall.  It  was  demolished  in 
1779,  having  already  come  ruinous.  A  President's  house  was  built  in 
1773  on  the  site  of  Reed  Hall.  It  was  a  spacious  and  well  built  mansion, 
and  was  occupied  by  all  the  Presidents  in  succession,  excepting  Presi- 
dent BROWN  and  President  DANA,  until  1838,  when  to  make  room  for 


HISTORICAL  DISCO  URSE.  1 7 

furniture,  together  with  the  stroll  personal  comforts  brought  iroin 
Connecticut  was  stored  in  the  "hutt,"  which  was  also  occupied  by 
Mrs.  WHEELOCK  and  the  other  females  of  the  family,  while  the 
young  men,  through  a  season  of  early  cold  and  snow,  slept  in 
booths  made  of  hemlock  boughs,  until  the  29th  of  October,  when 
the  houses  were  in  a  condition  to  be  occupied,  the  rooms  were 
made  quite  comfortable,  "and  love,  peace,  joy,  satisfaction  and 
contentment  reigned  through  the  whole."*  Nor  was  the  relig- 
ious spirit  which  actuated  this  movement  lost  sight  of  here.  The 
23d  of  the  next' January  was  observed  as  a  day  of  solemn  conse- 
cration and  prayer,  and  a  church  was  organized,  so  that  religion 
and  learning  might  go  hand  in  hand,  and  the  sacred  purposes  to 
which  the  Institution  was  consecrated  might  not  fail. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Trustees  was  held  at  Keene,  October 
22,  1770.  The  first  Commencement  was  held  on  the  28th 
of  August,  1771,  when  four  students,  LEVI  FRISBIE,  SAMUEL 
GRAY,  SYLVANUS  RIPLEY  and  JOHN  WHEELOCK,  were  grad- 
uated. RIPLEY  gave  the  Salutatory  in  English,  "drawing 
tears,"  says  the  President  in  his  brief  journal,  "from  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  learned."  FRISBIE  followed  with  a  "Clyosophick 
oration  in  Latin.  GRAY  held  the  question,  an  vera  cognitio  Dei 
luce  naturce  acquiripotest?"  WHEELOCK  pronounced  the  Yale- 
Reed  Hall,  it  was  removed  to  River  Street,  just  west  of  Mr.  EMERSON'S 
where,  altered  somewhat  externally,  it  still  stands.  The  first  College  Hall 
was  finished  in  1771.  It  stood  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  com- 
mon, facing  the  west.  It  was  a  wooden  building  painted  red,  of  two 
stories  in  height,  with  an  attic.  In  each  story  were  eight  rooms  for 
students,  and  four  rooms  in  the  attic.  After  the  completion  of  Dart- 
mouth Hall,  it  was  sold  to  PHINEAS  ANNIS,  and  by  him  subsequently 
taken  down.  Mr.  ANNIS  seems  to  have  paid  for  the  building  wholly 
or  in  part  by  erecting  the  old  academy,  hi  which  he  very  likely  used 
some  of  the  material  of  the  College  building.  This  old  wooden  acad- 
emy was  removed  to  the  Rope  Ferry  road  more  than  thirty  years  ago, 
and  fitted  up  as  a  dwelling  house,  by  Mr.  PHIXEAS  CLEMENT. 
*President  WHEELOCK'S  narative. 


18  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

dictory  in  Latin.  "Their  performances  met  with  universal 
acceptance  and  great  applause."  The  College  had  at  last  fairly 
begun  to  move.  A  quorum  of  the  Board  indeed  failed  to  be 
present,  and  therefore  no  degrees  were  actually  conferred.  But 
here  were  the.  men,  here  the  ceremony,  here  were  life,  spirit,  pur- 
pose, actual  fulfillment  of  the  cherished  plan.  The  rock  was 
smitten  and  the  waters  gushed  forth.  The  very  next  day, 
August  29th,  as  if  to  show  the  prevailing  missionary  character  of 
the  enterprise,  the  journal  says,  "Mr.  AVERT  was  ordained  Mis- 
sionary to  the  Onoidas.*  as  colleague  with  Mr.  KIRTLAXD,*  to 
whom  JAMES  DEAN,f  a  member  of  this  College  was  appointed 
Interpreter  pro  tempore,  or  till  another  could  be  provided." 

Cast  your  eye  back  for  one  moment  to  that  humble  begin- 
ning. See  that  little  company,  pioneers  of  learning  and  religion, 
a  motley  crowd, — the  ladies  on  horseback,  some  of  the  men  on 
foot, — toiling  along  the  narrow  pathway  called  a  road,  through 
valleys  shaggy,  rough,  and  solitary,  into  the  heart  of  the  cold 
northern  wilderness, — the  primeval  forest  unbroken  all  around 
them,  a  little  spot  on  the  level  plain  cleared  away  to  give  place 
for  a  "log  hutt,"  an  humble  dwelling  house,  and  a  modest 

*I  preserve  in  both  these  words  the  spelling  of  Mr.  WHEELOCK,  Mr. 
KIRKLAXD,  the  father  of  President  KIRKLAXD  of  Harvard,  and  the 
founder  of  Hamilton  Oncida  Academy  which  afterwards  became 
Hamilton  College,  seems  himself  to  have  signed  his  name  as  given  by 
Mr.  WHEELOCK. 

tJAMES  DEAN  passed  his  early  life  with  a  missionary,  the  Rev. 
EBENEZER  MOSELEY,  among  the  Indians,  and  became  familiar  with 
their  language.  In  1773  and  1774  lie  went  on  a  mission  to  the  Caghna- 
wagas  and  to  the  St.  Francis  Indians  in  Canada.  He  was  subsequently 
employed  by  the  Continental  Congress  to  consiliats  the  northern 
tribes,  and  after  the  Revolutionary  War  began,  was  retained  as  Indian 
agent  and  Interpreter,  being  stationed  at  Fort  Stanwix,  now  Rome,  X. 
Y.  His  influence  with  the  Oneidas  was  great,  and  he  received  from 
them  a  liberal  donation  of  land.  He  was  many  times  in  great  peril  of 
his  life  from  the  treachery  or  superstition  of  the  savages,  but  escaped 
all  dangers,  and  after  a  highly  honored  life,  died  in  Westmoreland  X. 
y.,  in  1823,  aged  75  years. 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  19 

structure  with  fifteen  or  twenty  rooms  styled  a  college — in  a 
region  almost  literally  unpeopled,  where  the  students,  if  solitude 
could  make  them  contented  and  happy,  might  have  abundance 
of  enjoyment, — not  within  call  of  flourishing  towns,  not  in  the 
midst  of  prairies  loaded  with  fertility,  not  by  the  side  of  the  sea 
with  commerce  brought  to  their  doors,  but  in  this  narrow  valley 
of  the  upper  Connecticut  rich  in  granite  and  ice,  under  the  cold 
shadow  of  the  Crystal  Hills.  Was  ever  such  seed  planted  where 
it  required  more  faith  to  foresee  the  harvest? 

Yet  here  was  the  home  of  contentment,  diligence  and  piety, 
Here  grew  up  a  little  community,  cultivated,  intelligent,  refined, 
learned  and  religious.  The  College  thus  started,  moved  on  with- 
out interruption,  and  with  quite  as  much  success  as  could  be 
anticipated.  It  never,  I  believe,  rejoiced  in  its  "Freshman  class 
of  one,"  and  certainly  never  graduated  its  Senior  class  of  one,  or 
passed  its  annual  commencement  without  conferring  a  single 
degree,  as  Harvard  did  several  times  in  its  earlier  history.  It 
felt  indeed,  soon  enough,  the  pressure  of  the  public  anxieties,  and 
looked  with  apprehension  to  the  possibility  of  a  hostile  invasion 
which  might  follow  down  the  water  courses  from  Canada.  But 
its  fears  were  never  realized,  and  the  peace  of  the  valley  was 
never  broken  by  the  tread  of  hostile  bands. 

For  the  first  eight  years,  the  work  of  instruction  was  con- 
ducted by  the  President  and  three  Tutors,  a  Professor  being  first 
formally  elected  in  1778.* 

*It  may  interest  some  to  see  the  agreement  entered  into  between 
President  WHEELOCK  and  Mr.  JOHN  SMITH,  the  first  Professor,  as  found 
among  Dr.  WHEELOCK'S  papers  : 

"An  agreement  between  the  Reverend  Doctor  ELEAZAB  WHEELOCK, 
President  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  Mr.  Jonx  SMITH,  late  Tutor  of 
the  same,  with  respect  to  said  Mr.  SMITH'S  settlement  and  salary  in  ca- 
pacity of  Professor  of  the  languages  in  Dartmo.  College. 

"Mr.  SMITH  agrees  to  settle  as  Professor  of  English,  Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  Chaklee,  &c.,  in  Dartmo.  College,  to  teach  which,  and  as  many 
of  these,  and  other  such  languages  as  he  shall  understand,  as  the  Trus- 


20  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

The  administration  of  President  WHEELOCK  was  somewhat 
patriarchal  and  magisterial,  as  became  the  leader  of  an  emigrat- 
ing colony.  The  College  was,  of  neccessity  very  much  under  his 
personal  guidance  and  direction.  lie  was  President,  Trustee, 
Treasurer,  Instructor,  Minister,  all  in  one,  and  had  besides, 

tees  shall  judge  necessary  and  practicable  for  one  man,  and  also  to  read 
lectures  on  them,  as  often  as  the  President,  Tutors,  &c.,  with  -himself 
shall  judge  profitable  for  the  Seminary.  He  also  agrees  while  he  can  do 
it  consistently  with  his  office  as  Professor,  annually  to  serve  as  Tutor  to 
a  class  of  students  in  the  College.  In  consideration  of  which  Dr. 
WHEELOCK  agrees  to  give  him  (the  said  Mr.  SMITH)  one  hundred 
pounds  L.  My.  annually  as  a  salary  to  be  paid  one  half  in  money  and 
the  other  half  in  money  or  in  such  necessary  articles  for  a  family  as 
wheat,  Indian  corn,  rye,  beef,  pork,  mutton,  butter,  cheese,  hay,  pastur- 
ing, etc.,  as  long  as  he  shall  continue  Professor  as  aforesaid,  and  that  he 
shall  have  these  articles  delivered  to  him  at  the  same  price  for  which 
they  were  usually  sold  before  the  commencement  of  the  present  war  in 
America,  viz:  that  he  shall  have  wheat  at  5s  per  bushel,  rye  at  3s, 
Indian  corn  at  2s6d,  fresh  beef  at  3d  per  lb.,  salt  beef  at  4  l-2d,  fresh 
pork  at  4  l-2d,  salt  do.  at  7d.  fresh  beef  at  18s  per  Ct,,  do.  pork  at  25s, 
mutton  at  3d  per  lb.,  butter  at  3d,  cheese  at  3d,  bread  at  2d,  hay  at  30s 
per  ton,  pasturing  per  season  for  horse  30s,  for  cow  2Cs,  and  also  to  give 
him  one  acre  of  land  near  the  College  for  a  building  spot,  a  deed  of 
which  he  promises  to  give  him  whenever  he  shall  request  the  same. 
Doctor  WHEELOCK  also  agrees  that  Mr.  SMITH'S  salary,  viz:  one 
hundred  pounds  annually  diall  not  be  diminished  when  his  business  as 
Professor  shall  be  so  great  that  it  will  render  it  impracticable  for  him 
to  serve  as  a  Tutor  to  a  class  in  College ;  and  that  Mr.  SMITH  shall  not 
be  removed  from  his  Professorship  except  the  Trustees  of  Dartnio.  Col- 
lege shall  judge  him  incapacitated  therefor,  and  also  that  Mr.  SMITH'S 
salary  shall  begin  with  the  date  hereof.  Doctor  WHEELOCK  also  prom- 
ises to  lay  this  agreement  before  the  Trustees  of  Dartm°.  College  to  be 
confirmed  by  them  at  their  next  meeting.  Mr.  SMITH  also  promises 
that  whenever  he  shall  have  a  sufficient  support  from-  any  fund  estab. 
lished  for  the  maintenance  of  a  Professor  of  languages,  he  will  give  up 
the  salary  to  which  the  agreement  entitles  him. 

"In  testimony  whereof,  we  have  hereunto  interchangeably   affixed 
our  hands  and  seals  this  Oth  day  of  November,  1777. 

ELEAZAR  WHEELOCK.         [L.S.] 
JOHN  SMITH.  [L.S.] 

"In  presence  of: 

SYLYAXUS  RIPLEY. 

JOSEPH  MOTTEY." 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  21 

received  a  commission  as  Magistrate.  According  to  ideas  derived 
from  England,  and  in  order  to  exercise  efficient  control  over  all 
who  might  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  settlement,  or  interfere 
with  the  morals  of  the  students,  it  was  thought  best  that  the 
College  should  control,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  township  in  which 
it  was  situated.  This  indeed  was  one  of  the  conditions  on  which 
it  was  located  in  Hanover.  Accordingly  in  1771,  the  towns  of 
Hanover  and  Lebanon  agreed  to  petition  the  Legislature  that  a 
district  of  land  at  least  three  miles  square,  taken  equally  from 
the  southwestern  corner  of  Hanover,  and  the  northwestern  cor- 
ner of  Lebanon,  be  set  apart  as  a  distinct  township  bearing  the 
name  of  Dartmouth.  As  this  purpose  was  not  consummated, 
owing  to  the  "public  confusions," — as  a  paper  subsequently  drawn 
up  affirms, — a  new  effort  was  made  in  1778  by  the  people  in  these 
adjoining  portions  of  the  two  towns  to  incorporate  themselves, 
as  it  seems  to  be  supposed  they  could  legally  do.  Why  this 
effort  failed  I  can  find  no  record. 

A  grave  instance  of  the  magisterial  authority  of  President 
WHEELOCK  is  found  in  a  bond  executed  in  1773,  by  twenty-eight 
members  of  the  College,*  three  students  of  the  Charity  School, 
and  one  "shop-keeper,"  as  he  is  styled,  by  which  they  jointly  and 
severally  bind  themselves,  their  heirs,  executors  and  administra- 
tors, to  pay  to  the  "Hon.  ELEAZAK  WIIEELOCK,  Esq.,"  ten  pounds 
lawful  money  of  the  Province,  the  condition  of  the  bond  being 
that  "if  CAESAR,  a  negro  man  now  residing  in  the  kitchen  at 
Dartmouth  College,  who  ha.s  been  convicted  and  fined  for  defa- 
mation, shall  for  the  future  be  of  good  behavior  and  conduct, 
then  this  present  obligation  to  lie  void  and  of  none  effect,  or  else 
to  stand  and  remain  in  full  force  and  virtue." 

*Among  these  are  found  the  names  of  JOHN  SMITH,  afterwards  the 
first  Professor  of  Language,  JOSEPH  M'KEEX.  the  first  President  of 
Bowdoin  College,  Jonx  LED  YARD,  the  famous  traveler,  and  EBENEZEIJ 
MATTOON,  afterwards  General  MATTOOX  who  served  under  GATES  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  died  in  1843,  full  of  years  and  of  honors. 


%2  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

It  is  pretty  evident  that  philanthropy,  taking  occasion  by 
the  law,  got  an  early  start  in  the  College,  and  that  CAESAR, 
whose  faulty  tongue  led  him  into  temptation  was  after  all 
regarded  as  a  man  and  a  brother. 

Dr.  WHEELOCK'S  administration  as  President  of  the  College 
was  on  the  whole,  marked  by  no  peculiar  difficulties,  except  such 
as  attended  the  starting  of  a  new  institution,  and  these  his  good 
judgment,  energy,  prudence  and  Christian  fidelity  enabled  him 
successfully  to  overcome.  The  Revolutionary  War  affected  the 
College  less  than  might  be  supposed.  The  fear  of  invasion  at 
one  time  alarmed  the  community  so  that  the  President  felt  it 
necessary  to  apply  to  the  Government  for  arms,  but  foreign 
troops  never  set  foot  in  New  Hampshire,  and  being  so  far 
removed  from  the  scenes  of  conflict,  the  number  of  students  was 
not  immediately  much  diminished,  and  as  to  pecuniary  resources, 
there  was  very  little  to  take  away.  Already,  in  February,  1775 
the  London  Trustees  had  informed  the  President  that  the  funds 
committed  to  them  had  been  expended,  and  of  course  that  their 
trust  had  expired.  Little  else  remained  besides  the  tuition  of 
the  students.  The  cannonade  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was 
heard  in  Hanover,*  but  it  could  not  rouse  an  anxiety  equal  to 
that  felt  upon  the  coast,  or  in  regions  more  exposed  to  the  march 
of  hostile  armies. 

From  1775  or  a  little  later,  Dr.  WHEELOCK'S  health  began 
to  decline.  The  original  purpose  with  which  he  commenced  his 
Charity  School,  though  most  beneficent,  and  attended  with  kindly 
influences  fir  more  effective  than  could  at  once  be  seen,  had  not 

*In  President  WMKK  LOCK'S  journal  I  find  the  following  entry,  "June 
16,  1775.  The  noise  of  cannon,  supposed  to  be  at  Boston,  was  heard  all 
day.  June  17.  The  same  report  of  cannon.  We  wait  with  impatience 
to  hear  the  occasion  and  event."  A  letter  from  him  to  Governor  TIIUM- 
BULL.  dated  June  19.  mentions  the  fact  in  almost  the  same  words,  "Last 
Saturday  and  Sabbath  we  heard  the  noise  of  cannon,  we  suppose,  at  Bos- 
ton, and  are  now  impatient  to  be  informed  of  the  occasion  and  event," 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  23 

been  carried  out  with  all  the  success  that  he  had  anticipated,  but 
something  more  hopeful,  of  larger  promise,  and  more  fruitful  in 
result  had  taken  its  place.     The  energy  of  that  untiring  mind  had 
not  wrought  in  vain.     He  was  a  man  fertile  in  resources,  of  per- 
severance and  force,  dignified  in  address,  and  resolute  in  purpose, 
and  long  before  he  died  he  reaped  the  fruit  of  his  benevolent  toil. 
By  the   charter  of  the   College  he   had   the   privilege   of  nomi- 
nating  his   successor   who    should   remain    in    office    until    the 
appointment  was  disapproved  by  the  Board  of  Trustees.     By  his 
last  will,  he  appointed  his  son,  JOHN  WHEELOCK,  as  his  successor. 
President  JOHN  WHEELOCK  assumed   his  office   at  a  time 
when  the  College  felt  most  severely   the  effects   of  the   Revolu- 
tionary War.     Its  classes   were   small, — its   income   was   uncer- 
tain,— its  means  were  largely  encroached  upon.     The  war  pressed 
heavily  upon  all  classes  in  the  community,  and  the   result   was  a 
still  unsolved  problem.   Nevertheless  there  were  some  encourag- 
ing circumstances  also.     The  institution   was  fairly   established, 
and  its  friends  felt  that  its  promise   had  been   fulfilled.     It   had 
firmly  taken  root,   and   was   drawing   sustenance   from  an   en- 
larging    population,    and    from    an    increasing    public    favor. 
Though  suffering,  of  course,  from   the   war,  it   was   not   driven 
from   its   seat   like   Harvard,   nor    made    the    field    of    battle 
like  Princeton,  and  when  the  independence  of  the  country    was 
secured,  it  started  on  a   career   of  unchecked   prosperity.     The 
classes  became  large,  and,  as  the  event  proves,  had  their  full  share 
of  men  of  decided  ability.     The  administration  of  JOHX   WHEE- 
LOCK extended  over  thirty-six  years,  a  period    longer,  by  a  little, 
than  that  of  any  other  President  of  the  college,   longer   indeed, 
if  I  do  not  mistake,  than  that  of  any  President  of  any    College  in 
New   England.      It   was    marked   by    a   gradual    and    decisive 
enlargement  of  all  the  means  and  appliances  of  effective    educa- 
tion.    New  professorships  were  founded,   and   better   modes  of 


24  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

teaching  brought  into  use.  A  manly  and  energetic  spirit  had 
always  marked  the  College.  An  unusual  tone  of  civility  and 
grace,  somewhat  foreign,  it  might  bo  imagine  1,  to  a  region  so 
secluded  as  ours,  visibly  pervaded  the  little  society,  and  spread 
its  humane  influence  far  over  the  region. 

The  first  college  edifice  proved  to  be  small  and  inadequate, 
and  during  the  lifetime  of  the  first  President,  preparations  were 
made  for  the  erection  of  a  better.  Accordingly  in  1786,  the 
foundations  of  a  new  college — the  present  Dartmouth  Hall — 
were  laid,  and  the  building  itself  was  completed  during  the  next 
year.  It  was  a  structure  of  some  pretension  in  its  day.  It  has 
lines  of  beauty  arid  fair  proportion  that  please  every  eye,  and 
although  of  wood,  suggestive  of  decay,  if  not  of  conflagration, 
no  one  of  us,  I  am  sure,  remembering  all  that  it  has  seen,  remem- 
bering the  footsteps  of  classmates  and  friends,  of  great  men  and 
good  men  that  have  walked  up  those  well-worn  stairs, — remem- 
bering the  benches  in  the  old  recitation  room  where  we  sat,  and 
the  beloved  and  revered  teachers  whose  voices  of  encourage- 
ment and  direction  still  sound  in  our  ears,  no  one  of  us  can 
look  at  it  without  a  stirring  of  the  heart.  Why,  its  long  entries, 
homely  and  rough  as  they  are,  are  to  me  full  of  beauty  and  mu- 
sic, and  I  would  rather  worship  in  its  humble  chapel  than  under 
the  sounding  arches  of  Westminster  Abbey. 

In  1790  a  further  accession  to  the  conveniences  of  the  place 
was  made  by  the  erection,  at  an  expense  of-  £300,  through  the 
joint  contributions  of  the  College  and  citizens  of  the  town,  of  a 
building  nearly  square  and  standing  a  few  rods  diagonally  south- 
west of  Dartmouth  Hall,  which  was  afterwards  used  for  a  chapel. 
It  had  no  architectural  beauty  without,  but  within  it  possessed  a 
virtue  which  has  made  some  buildings  quite  celebrated.  Its  con- 
cave roof  formed  a  complete  whispering  gallery,  and  from  corner 
to  corner,  a  distance  of  seventy  or  eighty  feet,  the  ticking  of  a 
watch,  or  a  whisper  inaudible  at  the  distance  of  a  yard  from  the 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  25 

speaker,  could  be  distinctly  heard.  It  was  a  building  without  a 
chimney,  and  never  profaned  by  a  stove  ;  and  here  before  break- 
fast on  the  cold  winter  mornings,  and  in  the  dim  twilight  of  the 
evening,  muffled  in  their  cloaks,  officers  and  students  gathered 
for  prayers  with  as  much  of  punctuality  and  order  as  characterize 
the  more  comfortable  devotions  of  our  degenerate  days.  This 
structure,  which  ought  to  have  been  preserved  for  its  accoustic 
qualities,  did  duty  for  nearly  or  quite  forty  years,  when,  on  the 
renovation  of  Dartmouth  Hall,  the  formation  of  a  new  chapel 
within  and  the  erection  of  new  edifices,  it  migrated  to  the  other 
side  of  the  plain,  and  then,  as  if  the  soul  of  a  restless  Indian 
were  in  it,  it  started  again  farther  north,  and  sunk,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  to  the  humble  service  of  a  barn. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  were  founded  the 
two  great  literary  societies  which  divide  the  College,  the  "Social 
Friends"  and  "United  Fraternity."  Their  influence  on  the  Col- 
lege has  been  most  marked  and  most  salutary.  There  comes  a 
period  in  the  life  of  almost  every  young  man  in  a  course  of  edu- 
cation when  he  specially  craves  books.  Throw  him  then  into  a 
well  selected  library,  let  him  roam  at  will  through  it.  become 
acquainted  with  authors  and  subjects, — -read,  inquire  and  exam- 
ine,— let  him  take  part  in  the  selection  and  purchase  of  books, 
and  you  have  done  the  best  thing  you  can  do  towards  cultivating 
his  taste  for  letters,  and  stimulating  a  spirit  which  he  will  carry 
with  him  through  life.  All  this  and  far  more  these  societies  with 
their  excellent  libraries  have  done  for  the  many  hundreds  who 
have  belonged  to  them.  Among  the  general  influences  of  the 
College,  those  which  go  to  make  up  the  genius  of  the  place,  I 
hardly  know  one  to  be  placed  before  them.  Other  societies  stand 
on  a  somewhat  different  basis,  but  yet  have  proved  to  be  of  great 
value.  Among  the  most  prominent  of  them  are  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa,  whose  character  for  dignity  and  discrimination  has  been 

4 


26  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

felt  in  so  many  classes ;  the  Theological  Society  which  has  done 
so  good  a  work  in  preserving  and  guiding  a  true  religious  spirit ; 
and  the  Handel  Society  which  through  a  long  succession  of 
classes  has  preserved  and  cultivated  a  taste  for  the  noblest  music. 

Another  circumstance  which  marked  the  enlargement  of  the 
College  was  the  establishment  of  the  Medical  School.  Dr.  NA- 
THAN SMITH  was  a  man  of  remarkable  medical  insight.  He  had 
many  of  those  qualities  which  have  given  fame  to  such  men  as 
JOHN  HUNTER  and  WILLIAM  CULLEX.  In  1796  he  proposed  to 
the  Trustees  of  the  College  to  deliver  lectures  to  the  students, 
and  to  form  classes  for  special  instruction  in  medicine.  While 
approving  in  the  main  of  his  plan,  they  did  not  find  themselves 
at  that  time  ready  to  fall  in  with  it  entirely.  The  proposition 
was  respectfully  deferred,  and  it  was  not  till  1798  that  Dr.  SMITH 
received  an  appointment  as  Professor  of  Theory  and  Practice, 
and  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery,  with  authority  to  teach 
and  to  employ  assistants  according  to  his  own  wishes.  The  State 
subsequently  lent  its  assistance,  and  erected  a  building,  and  the 
School  which  has  borne  such  honored  names  upon  its  rolls,  which 
has  done  such  thorough  work  for  the  science  and  art  of  healing 
started  on  its  beneficent  mission. 

The  early  days  of  the  College  were  days  before  we  had  got 
rid  of  the  idea  that  respect  and  deference  paid  by  the  young  to 
the  old,  by  the  son  to  his  father,  by  the  pupil  to  his  teacher,  are 
virtues  to  be  commended  and  enforced.  In  most  of  our  colleges, 
as  in  the  English  schools,  a  marked  respect  and  sometimes  actual 
service  was  required  from  the  younger  to  the  older  classes,  and 
certainly  from  students  to  the  college  officers.  It  was  one  of  the 
"orders  and  customs"  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  that  "every 
scholar  should  keep  his  hat  off  about  ten  rods  to  the  President 
and  about  five  to  the  Tutor,"  and  "every  Freshman  sent  on  an 
errand  shall  go  and  do  it  faithfully  and  make  quick  return." 


HISTORICAL  DISCO  URSE.  2  7 

Similar  customs  were  prevalent  in  Harvard  and  Yale  and  to  some 
extent  here.  Bat  these  gradually  disappeared  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  present  century,  while  of  the  custom  of  cor- 
poral punishment  administered  by  the  President  to  a  delinquent 
student,  common  at  one  time  at  Harvard,  I  can  find  no  trace. 

We  come  now  to  times  and  events  which  tried  to  the  utmost 
the  firmness,  the  principle,  the  popularity  and  usefulness  of  the 
College ;  events  which  it  is  impossible  to  pass  over  without 
notice,  and  difficult  to  speak  of  fairly  and  yet  briefly  as  the  occa- 
sion requires.  The  years  between  1810  and  1819  were  years  of 
public  and  private  controversy.  An  unfriendly  feeling  had  grad- 
ually grown  up  between  the  President  and  some  of  the  Oificers 
and  Trustees,  the  causes  of  which  belong  to  the  fuller  records  of 
history.  This  unfriendliness  soon  spread  beyond  the  limits  of 
personal  relations,  and  beyond  the  Institution  and  parties  imme- 
diately concerned.  Ministers  and- laymen  throughout  this  and 
the  adjoining  States  invoked  by  one  or  another  of  the  disputants, 
took  sides  and  added  to  the  general  excitement.  Political  feeling 
which  ran  high,  was  appealed  to,  and  the  question  became  com- 
plicated, and  assumed  unexpected  magnitude. 

The  Board  of  Trustees  was  composed  of  men  of  remarkable 
ability,  of  great  legal  attainments,  and  of  high  character.  Among 
them  were  such  men  as  NATHANIEL  NILES, — a  strong  politician 
on  the  democratic  side,  a  subtle  theologian,  an  unwearied  and 
powerful  disputant,  and  of  unblemished  integrity ;  THOMAS  W. 
THOMPSON,  a  lawyer  of  large  experience,  familiar  with  affairs,  and 
well  acquainted  with  public  events ;  TIMOTHY  FAKRAR,  a  jurist 
of  great  prudence  and  integrity ;  ELIJAH  PAINE  and  CHARLES 
MAESH,  lawyers  of  great  learning,  acuteness  and  power,  of  pro- 
found convictions,  thoroughly  independent  and  fearless;  Rev. 
ASA  MCFARLAND  and  Rev.  SETH  PAYSON,  among  the  best  rep- 
resentatives of  the  clergy  in  this  or  any  State,  earnest  leaders  of 


28  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

religious  opinion,  and  wielding  the  influence  which  belongs  to 
pure  lives  and  high  moral  purpose.  The  Trustees  felt  that  the  Col- 
lege was  approaching  a  crisis,  difficult  to  meet,  sure  to  be  attended 
with  anxiety,  distress,  personal  alienations,  and  unforeseen  costs. 
But  they  were  not  men  to  be  afraid  or  to  shrink  from  a  painful 
duty.  The  disagreements  having  become  too  deep  and  compli- 
cated to  allow  hope  of  easy,  or  perhaps  of  any  adjustment,  the 
Board,  acting  on  its  undoubted  right,  removed  the  President 
from  office,  and  appointed  in  his  place  a  young  minister*  who 
had  already,  several  years  before,  declined  an  earnest  invitation 
to  an  important  and  delightful  chair  of  instruction  in  the  College, 
and  was  now  the  happy  pastor  of  a  parish  on  the  seacoast  of  the 
then  District  of  Maine.  With  great  reluctance  and  self  distrust, 
and  with  sensibilities  fully  alive  to  the  delicate  and  peculiarly 
trying  duties  of  the  position,  he  yielded  to  the  repeated,  urgent 
and  powerful  appeals  which  came  from  many  quarters,  and  forsook 
the  quiet  and  satisfying  labors  of  a  united  and  affectionate  parish 
and  a  beautiful  home,  for  a  life  of  unwelcome  contention,  for 
unremitting  toil  cheered  only  by  the  inward  reward  of  an  approv- 
ing conscience,  for  unusual  mental  solicitudes,  for  an  overtasked 
frame  and  an  early  grave.  The  action  of  the  Trustees  awakened 
intense  feeling  throughout  the  State.  It  was  condemned  by 
some  as  unjust  and  illegal,  and  by  others  as  harsh  and  impolitic. 
It  was  defended  as  the  necessary  issue  of  a  long  controversy  some- 
what obscure  perhaps,  in  its  origin,  reluctantly  engaged  in,  yet 
having  in  the  end  but  one  possible  result, — a  result  forced  upon 
the  Board  by  their  conscientious  convictions  and  a  deep  sense  of 
their  responsibility  as  the  guardians  of  an  important  institution 
in  imminent  danger  of  serious  injury,  perversion  and  loss. 

*FKAXCIS  BROWN,  then  Minister  of  the  parish  of  North  Yarmouth, 
Maine. 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  29 

The  Legislature  of  the  State  entered  into  the  controversy 
and  took  sides  with  Dr.  WHEELOCK.  The  charter  of  the  College 
was  at  once  superseded,  and  a  new  institution  formed,  to  be 
called  the  Dartmouth  University.  A  new  Board  of  Trust  was 
organized,  and  fines  and  other  penalties  threatened  against  any 
one  who  exercised  authority  under  the  old  corporation.  The 
college  buildings  and  books  passed  to  the  hands  of  the  new 
Board,  and  the  old  officers  took  refuge  in  an  adjoining  hall,  and 
heard  recitations  where  they  could  find  a  place.  Their  situation 
was  precarious  and  uncertain.  They  were  contending  against 
the  State,  and  the  State,  right  or  wrong,  is  no  mean  antagonist. 
They  seemed  to  be  in  the  position  of  rebels  against  the  supreme 
authority ; — a  small  minority  not  only  against  presumed  law  and 
justice  but  against  an  eager  political  majority.  Without  funds, 
without  personal  wealth,  without  keys  or  seal,*  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees nevertheless  determined  to  contest  the  great  question  of  ves- 
ted rights.  They  determined  that  the  question  should  be  settled 
not  by  political  majorities,  not  by  personal  feeling,  or  private 
interests,  but  by  the  quiet  unswerving  principles  of  law,  ex- 
pounded by  the  most  exalted  tribunal  in  the  State,  or,  if  need 
were,  in  the  land.  They  felt  that  it  was  not  their  own  interests 
merely  that  they  were  defending,  but  those  of  Harvard  and  Yale 
as  well,  and  of  every  eleemosynary  trust  in  the  country.  Were 
these  to  be  fixed  on  the  immoveable  basis  of  a  charter  impregna- 
ble while  inviolate,  or  were  they  to  rest  on  the  fluctuating  opin- 
ions of  changing  majorities? 

In  advocacy  of  her  cause,  the  College  looked  first  to  the 
legal  talent  of  the  State,  a  State  which  in  her  bar  and  her  bench 
has  always  been  represented  by  the  highest  learning  and  ability 
in  jurisprudence.  Her  cause  was  argued  in  the  State  Court  by 
JEREMIAH  SMITH,  JEREMIAH  MASON  and  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  and 

*The  Seal  of  the  College  was  presented  to  it  in  1773,  by  GEORGE 
JAFFREY,  Esq. 


30  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

to  name  them  is  to  name  all  that  is  profound  in  the  law,  and 
subtle  and  convincing  in  advocacy.  It  was  opposed  by  the  ele- 
gant skill  and  powerful  legal  acumen  of  ICHABOD  BARTLETT  and 
GEORGE  SULLIVAN.  Chief  Justice  WILLIAM  M.  RICHARDSON,  with 
whom  were  associated  as  Justices,  SAMUEL  BELL  and  LEYI  WOOD- 
BURY  gave  the  decision  of  the  court  at  the  November  term  of 
1817,  and  it  was  adverse  to  the  College.  The  case  was  at  once 
carried  up  by  appeal,  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
and  argued  at  Washington  in  that  lucid  and  powerful  speech 
which  first  gave  Mr.  WEBSTER  his  national  fame  as  a  profound 
lawyer, — aided  by  the  silver  eloquence  of  Mr.  HOPKINSON  of  Phil- 
adelphia. Opposed  to  them  were  JOHN  HOLMES  of  Maine,  and  the 
Attorney  General,  Mr.  WIRT.  In  February  1819  Chief  Justice 
MARSHALL  pronounced  his  luminous  and  convincing  decision  in 
favor  of  the  College;  that  decision,  to  borrow  the  words  of  CHAN- 
DLER KENT,  which  "did  more  than  any  other  single  act  proceed- 
ing from  the  authority  of  the  United  States  to  throw  an  impreg- 
nable barrier  around  all  rights  and  franchises  derived  from  the 
grant  of  government',  and  to  give  solidity  and  inviolability  to 
the  literary,  charitable,  religious,  and  commercial  institutions  of 
our  Country?* 

There  are  some  of  us  here  who  can  remember  the  irrepres- 
sible enthusiasm,  the  cannon  and  the  bonfires,  which  followed 
the  announcement  of  the  result  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  WEBSTER  to 
the  President  of  the  College :  "All  is  safe  and  certain.  The 
Chief  Justice  delivered  an  opinion  this  morning,  [Feb.  2,  1819,] 
in  our  favor,  on  all  the  points.  In  this  opinion  WASHINGTON,  LIV- 
INGSTON, JOHNSON,  and  STORY,  Justices,  are  understood  to  have 
concurred.  DUVAL,  Justice,  it  is  said,  dissents.  Mr.  Justice  TODD, 
is  not  present.  The  opinion  goes  the  whole  length  and  leaves 
nothing  to  be  decided.  I  give  you  my  congratulations,  on  this 

*KENT,  Lect.  19th,  Vol.  I.  p.  392. 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.         31 

occasion  ;  and  assure  you  that  I  feel  a  load  removed  from  my 
shoulders  much  heavier  than  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
bear." 

Out  of  this  severe  and  protracted  contest  the  College  came 
erect,  indeed,  but  worn  and  weakened  ;  having  held  her  honor 
and  her  rights,  but  with  little  else  to  boast  of;  with  vigorous  spirit 
and  purpose,  but  exhausted  in  resources  and  with  the  sole  privi- 
lege of  enjoying  her  ancient  charter,  of  re-occupying  her  dilapi- 
dated buildings,  and  of  going  on  unmolested  in  her  unobtrusive 
labors.  The  exposures,  anxieties  and  toils  of  those  years,  cost 
one  member  of  the  small  Faculty  his  life,  and  seriously  wore 
upon  the  others.*  An  important  victory  was  gained,  and  honora- 
bly acquiesced  in  on  all  sides,  but  as  in  greater  contests,  it  left  to 
those  who  were  disappointed,  a  legacy  of  prejudices  and  unfriendli- 
ness which  a  whole  generation  could  hardly  eradicate.  For  the  per- 
petual honor  of  the  College  is  it,  however,  that  to  her  insight,  to 
her  resolute  energy,  to  her  unflinching  determination,  in  adverse 
times  and  under  great  difficulties,  is  it  owing  that  other  institu- 
tions and  other  charities  have  moved  on  unharmed,  undisturbed, 
in  their' beneficent  work.  This  contest  was  the  great  but  unwel- 
come labor  of  the  short  administration  of  the  third  President  of 
the  College. 

During  this  period  of  agitation  and  doubt,  when  it  was  un- 
certain whether  the  authorities  would  be  sustained,  and  the  reins 
of  discipline  would  seem  of  necessity  to  be  lightly  held,  the  order 

*The  permanent  officers  of  the  College  at  this  time,  were  but  three, 
President  BROWN,  Professor  SHURTLEFF,  and  Professor  ADAMS.  The 
Tutors  from  1815  to  1820,  were  HENRY  BOND,  WILLIAM  WHITE, 
KUFUS  W.  BAILEY,  JAMES  MARSH,  NATHAN  W.  FISKE  and  RUFUS 
CHOATE.  It  was  during  the  height  of  this  controversy  that  Dr.  BROWN 
was  strongly  urged  to  accept  the  Presidency  of  Hamilton  College  in 
New  York,  then  rising  into  importance,  and  with  large  promise  of  use- 
fulness. He  felt,  however,  hound  to  Dartmouth  until  the  case  was 
finally  decided,  and  declined  the  generous  and  nattering  proposal. 


32        HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

of  college  and  the  spirit  of  study  and  improvement  were  admira- 
ble. The  records  of  the  Triennial  Avill  show  that  never,  perhaps, 
in  proportion  to  the  whole  number  of  students  have  classes  con- 
tained more  young  men  of  high  ability,  or  those  whose  lives  have 
since  been  more  honorably  distinguished. 

After  the  death  of  President  BJROWX,  the  Rev.  DANIEL 
DANA  was  chosen  to  succeed  him.  Of  beautiful  character  arid 
graceful  scholarship,  he  found  the  annoyances  and  perplexities  of 
the  office  too  unwelcome,  and  he  resigned  the  position  after  a 
single  year  of  service,  a  time  too  short  to  allow  the  influence  of 
his  delicate  and  refined  nature  to  be  very  strongly  felt.  He  was 
succeeded  in  1822  by  the  Rev.  BEXXET  TYLER,  a  graduate  of 
Yale,  and  a  minister  in  South  Britain,  Connecticut.  His  labors 
for  the  College  were  untiring  and  efficient.  He  did  much  to  en- 
large its  funds  and  advance  its  general  interests.  He  increased 
the  confidence,  especially  of  the  religious  community,  in  the 
soundness  of  its  principles  and  the  excellence  of  its  discipline. 
New  officers  of  great  ability  and  admirable  skill  were  brought 
into  the  Faculty,  and  the  whole  scheme  of  instruction  was  made 
broader  and  more  effective.  During  a  part  of  his  Presidency,  the 
pulpit  of  the  College  Church  being  vacant,  he  took  upon  himself 
the  public  services,  and  in  no  way  perhaps  did  he  make  his  in- 
fluence more  strongly  felt  upon  the  minds  of  the  students.  A 
powerful  religious  awakening  marked  some  of  those  years,  and 
transformations  of  character  were  effected  which  have  stood  the 
test  of  life-long  experience.* 

*I  believe  that  no  student  was  ever  excluded  from  the  College  on 
account  of  color,  but  during  the  Presidency  of  Dr.  TYLEE  an  incident 
occurred  which  compelled  the  College  authorities  to  make  a  decision  on 
this  point.  In  1824,  EDWARD  MITCHELL,,  a  native  of  Martinique,  W.  I., 
a  young  man  with  some  African  blood  and  color,  who  had  accompanied 
President  BROWN  on  his  return  from  the  South,  of  irreproachable  char- 
acter and  conduct,  applied  for  admission  to  the  Freshman  class.  The 
Trustees,  fearing-that  his  presence  would  be  unacceptable,  at  first  de- 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE.  33 

In  1828,  on  the  retirement  of  President  TYLER,  commenced 
the  administration  of  the  Rev.  NATHAN  LORD,  which  for  its 
great  length,  the  number  of  students  who  have  been  graduated, 
the  enlargement  of  the  departments  of  instruction,  the  addition 
of  new  schools,  and  the  wisdom  and  steadiness  of  its  conduct, 
may  be  considered  among  the  most  important  in  the  history  of  the 
College.  But  I  am  coming  now  to  times  which  have  not  yet  quite 
passed  into  history.  You  are  familiar  with  the  scenes  of  these 
later  years,  and  will  recount  them  to  each  other.  More  than  half 
the  whole  number  of  the  Alumni  were  graduated  while  Dr.  LORD 
occupied  his  official  position.  The  large  majority  of  us  received 
our  diplomas  at  his  hands.  O  that  he  were  with  us  to-day,  as  we 
confidently  expected  he  would  be,  that  he  might  receive  our 
respectful  and  affectionate  greetings,  that  we  might  listen  to  his 
recollections,  and  receive  once  more  his  welcome  and  his  bene- 
diction. Long  may  it  be  before  lie  shall  "go  over  to  the  majority," 
and  when  the  inevitable  hour  does  come,  may  he  be  gathered 
like  a  "shock  of  corn  fully  ripe  in  his  season."* 

clined  to  receive  him.  Hearing  of  this,  the  students  at  once  held  meet- 
ings and  sent  a  committee  to  request  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  join 
the  incoming  class.  The  sole  objection  being  thus  removed,  he  took 
his  place,  went  through  the  college  course  with  honor,  and  was  gradua- 
ted in  1828.  Many  young  men  of  African  lineage  have  since  entered  the 
College,  subjected  to  110  special  disabilities,  nor  has  one,  so  far  as 'can 
now  be  recalled,  been  treated  by  his  fellow  students  or  by  others,  with 
disrespect  on  account  of  his  race. 

*In  1851  the  means  of  education  under  the  direction  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  received  a  decisive  enlargmeut  by  a  bequest  of  ABIEL 
CHANDLER,  Esq.,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire  but  a  graduate  of  Harvard, 
who  gave  $50,000  for  establishing  a  School  for  education  in  the  practical 
and  useful  arts  of  life.  This  School  has  proved  of  great  service  to  many 
young  men,  more  than  a  hundred  of  whom  have  already  completed  in 
it  their  course  of  education. 

It  may  be  proper  to  state  here  that  after  the  resignation  of  Dr. 
LORD,  Rev.  A.  D.  SMITH,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  14th  St.  Presbyterian  Church 
in  New  York,  was  chosen  President  and  was  inaugurated  Xov.  18th,  1S63> 
It  is  gratifying  to  observe  that  the  funds  of  the  College  have  since 


34-  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

There  is  not  much  time  to  speak  of  the  general  policy  of  the 
College  through  these  hundred  years  of  its  life,  but  I  may  say  in 
brief,  that  it  has  been  sound  and  earnest,  conservative  and  ag- 
gressive at  the  same  time.  As  the  motto  on  its  seal, — vox  da- 
mantis  in  deserto, — indicated  and  expressed  the  religious  purpose 
of  its  founders,  so  this  purpose  has  never  been  lost  sight  of. 
Through  lustrum  after  lustrum,  and  generation  after  generation, 
while  classes  have  succeeded  classes,  while  one  corps  of  Instruc- 
tors have  passed  away  and  others  have  taken  their  places,  this 
high  purpose  of  presenting  and  enforcing  the  vital  and  essential 
truths  of  the  Christian  religion,  has  never  been  forgotten  or  neg- 
lected. The  power  of  Christianity  in  modifying,  inspiring  and 
directing  the  energies  of  modern  civilization, — its  art,  its  litera- 
ture, its  commerce,  its  laws,  its  government  has  been  profoundly 
felt.  Nor  has  it  for  a  moment  been  forgotten  that  education,  to 
be  truly  and  in  the  largest  degree  beneficent,  must  also  be  relig- 
ious,— must  affect  that  which  is  deepest  in  man, — must  lead  him, 
if  it  can,  to  the  contemplation  of  truths  most  personal,  central  and 
essential,  must  open  to  him  some  of  those  depths  where  the  soul 
swings  almost  helplessly  in  the  midst  of  experiences  and  powers 
unfathomable  and  infinite, — where  the  intellect  falters  and  hesi- 
tates and  finds  no  solution  of  its  perplexities  till  it  yields  to  faith. 
Within  later  years  there  have  been  those  who  have  advocated 
the  doctrine  that  education  should  be  entirely  secular, — that  the 

that  time  very  considerably  increased.  In  1866  the  Legislature  of  N.  H. 
passed  an  act  establishing  the  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  COLLEGE  OF  AGRICUL- 
TURE AND  THE  MECHANIC  ARTS,  on  the  basis  of  the  Congressional  land 
grant,  and  located  it  in  Hanover  in  connection  with  Dartmouth  College. 
In  1867  Gen.  SYLVANUS  THAYER,  of  the  class  of  1807,  for  sixteen  years 
from  181-7  to  1833,  Superintendent  of  the  Military  Academy  at  West 
Point,  by  a  donation  of  $40,000,  subsequently  increased  to  $60,000,  made 
provision  for  establishing  a  special  School  of  Architecture  and  Civil 
Engineering  in  connection  with  the  College.  The  means  of  education 
now  concentrated  at  Hanover  are  such  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  almost 
every  person  who  may  seek  knowledge  or  culture. 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  35 

College  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  religious  counsels  or  ad- 
vice. Now  while  I  do  not  think  that  this  would  be  easy,  as  our 
colleges  are  organized,  without  leaving  or  even  inciting  the  mind 
to  dangerous  skepticism,  nor  possible  but  by  omitting  the  most 
powerful  means  of  moral  and  intellectual  discipline,  nor  without 
depriving  the  soul  of  that  food  which  it  specially  craves,  and  des- 
titute of  which  it  will  grow  lean,  hungry  and  unsatisfied, — as  a 
matter  of  history,  no  such  theory  of  education  has  found  favorable 
response  among  the  guardians  of  Dartmouth.  At  the  same  time 
while  the  general  religious  character  of  the  College  has  been  well 
ascertained  and  widely  recognized,  while  the  great  truths  of  our 
common  Christianity  have  been  fully  and  frankly  and  earnestly 
brought  to  the  notice  of  intelligent  and  inquiring  minds,  it  has 
not  been  with  a  narrow  illiberal  and  proselyting  spirit,  not  so  as 
rudely  to  violate  traditionary  beliefs,  not  so  as  to  wound  and  re- 
pel any  sincere  and  truth  loving  mind.  And  this  is  the  consis- 
tent and  sound  position  for  the  College  to  hold. 

With  respect  to  its  curriculum  of  studies  the  position  of  the 
College  has  been  equally  wise.  She  has  endeavored  to  make  her 
course  as  broad,  generous  and  thorough  as  possible ;  equal  to  the 
best  in  the  land  ;  so  that  her  students  could  feel  that  no  privilege 
has  been  denied  them  which  any  means  at  her  disposal  could 
provide.  She  has  endeavored  wisely  to  apportion  the  elements 
of  instruction  and  discipline.  She  has  provided  as  liberally  as 
possible,  by  libraries,  apparatus,  laboratories  and  cabinets  for  in- 
crease in  positive  knowledge.  She  has  equally  insisted  on  those 
exact  studies  which  compel  subtleness  and  precision  of  thought, 
which  habituate  the  mind  to  long  trains  of  controlled  reasoning, 
which  discipline  alike  the  attention  and  the  will,  the  conservative 
and  the  elaborative  powers.  She  has  given  full  honor  to  the 
masterpieces  of  human  language  and  human  thought,  through 
which,  while  we  come  to  a  more  complete  knowledge  of  peoples 

t 


36        HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

and  nations,  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  we  feel  more  profoundly 
the  life  of  history,  and  comprehend  the  changes  of  custom  and 
thought,  while  the  finer  and  more  subtle  powers  of  fancy  and 
imagination  stir  within  the  sensitive  mind,  and  gradually  by 
constant  and  imperceptible  inspiration  lift  the  soul  to  regions  of 
larger  beauty  and  freedom. 

So  may  she  ever  hold  on  her  way,  undcludcd  by  specious 
promises  of  easier  methods,  inuring  her  students  to  toil  as  the 
price  of  success;  not  rigid  and  motionless  but  plastic  and  adapt- 
ing herself  to  the  necessities  of  different  minds;  yet  never  con- 
founding things  that  differ,  nor  vainly  hoping  on  a  narrow  basis 
of  culture,  to  rear  the  superstructure  of  the  broadest  attainment 
and  character,  but  ever  determined  to  make  her  instructions  the 
most  truly  liberal  and  noble. 

Thus,  Fathers  and  Brothers  of  the  Alumni,  have  I  endeavored 
to  perform  the  duty  assigned  me  of  portraying  briefly  the  course 
of  our  beloved  and  benignant  Mother,  from  youth  to  venerable 
ago.  I  should  love  to  enlarge  upon  some  of  the  familiar  names 
which,  when  hers  is  mentioned,  rise  unbidden  to  our  lips;  of  those 
teachers  venerable  and  ever  to  be  revered,  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  learning,  to  whom  Ave  have  owed  so  much, — of  Pro- 
fessor ADAMS  and  Doctor  SHURTLEFF,  Professor  CHAMBERLAIN, 
and  Professor  HADDOCK,  Doctor  NATHAN  SMITH  and  Doctor 
MUSSKY,  Doctor  DANA,  and  Doctor  OLIVER,  Professor  PEABODY, 
Professor  YOUNG,  and  Professor  LONG,  Professor  CHASE  and 
Professor  PUTNAM.  I  should  like  to  call  up  for  special  honor 
those  generous  patrons  from  THORNTON  and  PHILLIPS  to  CHAND- 
LER, rind  ArrLETON,  and  SIIATTUCK,  and  HALL,  and  BOND,  and 
YViLi.AKn,  :md  THAYER,  and  FLETCHER,  and  CULVER,  and  Bis- 
SI:LL,  whose  liberality  has  provided  for  the  generous  enlargement 
of  its  privileges  or  has  founded  new  schools,  whose  names  shall 
be  remembered ks long  as  yonder  walls  and  spires  shall  cast  their 
shadows  over  these  lovely  plains.  I  should  delight  to  speak  of 


HISTORICAL  DISCO  URSE.  3  7 

the  manifest  wisdom  of  the  State  in  concentrating  here  her 
schools  for  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  knowing  how 
well  it  is  for  different  departments  of  learning  and  skill  to  look 
on  each  other  with  friendly  eyes,  and  lend  each  to  each,  a 
helping  hand.  But  all  these  must  be  left  to  other  times  and 
other  tongues. 

With  no  purpose  of  personal  advantage  but  with  the  deep- 
est filial  love  and  gratitude  have  we  assembled  this  day.  Of  all 
professions  and  callings,  from  many  States,  from  public  business 
and  from  engrossing  private  pursuits, — you,  my  young  friend  who 
have  just  corne,  with  hesitation  and  ingenuous  fear,  to  add  your 
name  if  you  may,  to  the  honored  rolls  of  the  College,  and  you  sir,* 
whose  memory  runs  back  to  the  begining  of  the  century,  the 
oldest  or  nearly  the  oldest  living  alumnus  of  the  College,  the 
contemporary  of  CHAPMAX  and  HARVEY,  and  FLETCHER,  and 
PARRIS,  and  WESTOX  and  WEBSTER, — you  who  came  from  be- 
yond the  "Father  of  Waters,"  and  you  who  have  retreated  for  a 
moment  from  the  shore  of  the  dark  Atlantic — you  sir,  our  brother 
by  hearty  and  affection  ate  adoption,!  who  led  our  armies  in  that 
memorable  march  from  the  mountain  to  the  sea,  which  shall  be 
remembered  as  long  as  the  march  of  the  ten  thousand,  and 
repeated  in  story  and  song  as  long  as  history  and  romance  shall 
be  written,  and  you,  sir,$  who  hold  the  even  scales  of  justice  in 
that  august  tribunal,  from  which  MARSHALL  proclaimed  the  law 
which  insured  to  us  our  ancient  name  and  rights  and  privileges, 
unchanged,  untarnished,  unharmed, — all  of  us,  my  brothers,  with 
one  purpose  have  come  up  to  lay  our  trophies  at  the  feet  of  our 
common  mother,  to  deck  her  with  fresh  garlands,  to  rejoice  in 
her  prosperity,  and  to  promise  her  our  perpetual  homage  and  love. 

*JoB  LYMAX,  Esq.,  of  the  class  of  1804. 

tGeneral  SHERMAN  received  the  highest  honorary  degree  of  the 
College  in  1866. 

fit  is  necessary  only  to  strangers  to  say  that  Chief  Justice  CHASE 
was  the  President  of  the  Alumni  Association. 


38  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE. 

Let  no  word  of  ours  ever  give  her  pain  or  sorrow.  Loyal  to  our 
heart  of  hearts,  may  we  minister  so  far  as  we  can,  to  her  wants, 
may  we  be  jealous  of  her  honor,  and  solicitous  for  her  prosperity. 
May  no  ruthless  hand  ever  hereafter  be  lifted  against  her.  May 
no  unholy  jealousies  rend  the  fair  fabric  of  her  seamless  garment. 
May  no  narrow  or  unworthy  spirit  mar  the  harmony  of  her  wise 
counsels.  May  she  stand  to  the  end  as  she  ever  has  stood,  for  the 
Church  and  State,  a  glory  and  a  defence.  And  above  all  and  in 
order  to  all,  may  the  spirit  of  God,  in  full  measure  rest  upon  her  ; 
"the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel 
and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear  of  the 
Lord." 


TTHI7BRSITY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


THIS  BOOK  IS 


STAMPED  BELOW 


THE  LAST  BATE 


eah.hrd 
to  $1.00  per  volumf  a  ter  the  Six?h 


">  "  <""=  <" 


4Nov'56CR 
REC'D  LD 


JUL10'67-8AM 

LOAN  DEPT. 

DEC  1  5  1976 


50TO-7,'16 


Y.C  65147 


